Little Known History of Gulf (Golf)

It is a strongly held confidence that Baffin Island, in fact northern Baffin Island in the vicinity of Pond Inlet (the home of the Baffin Island Golf & Country Club) is the true birth place of golf.

Long before Martin Frobisher′s visit in 1576, European whalers and fishermen were sailing to Baffin Island on a regular basis to harvest the unbelievable bounty of cod and numerous species of whale. Hundreds of English, French, Portuguese and Spanish ships came without charts or the local knowledge to keep from inadvertently finding the many shoals along the coast. In a relatively short time the beaches of the island were strewn with all sorts of flotsam. Now keep in mind that there are no trees on Baffin Island and therefore no wood. To this point all implements such as spears, sleds, kayaks etc were made from bone or antler or tusk, and animal skin. The point is, when this new building material arrived on their shores the natives had no preconceived ideas about its uses.

Since the wood had arrived on beaches strewn with smooth round stones, it didn′t take long for these quick-witted, inventive people to make a connection between the two.

In its earliest form, the stones were simply hit into the water or out onto the ice. However an innate drive for excellence and a small measure of competition soon had this stone whacking¹ novelty changed into a game of skill with several variations popular along the coast.

The Game in Summer

Attention was first drawn to the summer version of the game by Professor El Sonador of the Carl Jung Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology who at the time was studying the peculiar phenomenon of whiteness in Arctic animals and its historic impact on the Inuit.

In his definitive paper on the subject Prof. El Sonador expressed his astonishment at discovering from local sources on Baffin Island that the animals of the north used to come in a variety of colours. However by 1590, Hudson's Bay Company⁷ records show there were few non-white animals of any species left. This, the Professor established, was a direct result of the local practice of making a pyramid of round stones and using a whacker made from drift wood to drive the top stone at a target. The youth of the area had developed a variation of this pastime requiring significantly more skill, in which aim was taken at anything that could be seen moving. Against the all white background non-white animals were easy to see and many felt the shock and embarrassment of being struck by one of these stones. Finally in frustration and with no recourse to the as yet unformed SPCA, the animals decided to move south, away from this constant irritation. The white animals of course, never having had bad experiences with the flying stones, were quite content to stay. For his ground breaking work in this area, Prof. El Sonador has posthumously been granted a lifetime membership to the Baffin Island Golf & Country Club.

The Winter Game

It is in the winter version that we see the final evolution of the game we have come to love and hate. So enamoured of their new found game were the Baffin Islanders that they began collecting perfectly round black stones during the summer so that the enjoyment could be carried over into the winter. Understand that by the end of the 14^th century the methods of fishing and hunting employed by the Baffin Islanders had been well established for millennia. Leaving home the hunter would travel out onto the ice to a circuit of breathing holes cut into the ice for the benefit of the local seals and as a place to drop in a fishing line. To alleviate the boredom experienced when walking or riding a sled from hole to hole the Islanders initiated the practice of whacking or driving a stone from a small bluff above Baffin Bay (locally referred to as "the Gulf"²), out onto the ice in the direction of the first breathing-hole. The idea of course was to get the stone into the hole³ in as few whacks as possible. Later, as an aid to establishing the actual location of each hole, a spear was left stuck upright into the ice beside the hole. The shortness of light in the winter months limited a hunter to covering an average of nine or ten holes in one day. A dedicated hunter has been known to get to as many as eighteen.

In the evening the hunters from an area would gather to relate the significant events of the day, including the number of whacks it had taken to get around their circuit⁴ of breathing holes. When hunters from other villages happened by, inevitably the subject of gulfing came up. This general interest led to hunters from the same village and in time as word spread, those from remote villages, trying out each others circuits⁵. Some hunters became well known in Baffin Island for the intricacy and uniqueness of their hole layouts and hunters from across the island would come to experience the challenges this or that hunter had created through his design.

Whacker (Club) Design

It should be pointed out that Non-northerners have a propensity for misinterpretation.

When the European fishermen first came in contact with the Baffin Islanders carrying whackers they assumed that they were weapons, instruments of destruction, and therefore referred to them as clubs⁶.

At their inception, whackers were not much more than baseball bats, but as the islanders learned how to fire harden the wood, the shafts became thinner and experimentation began with head shapes. Suffice it to say, this experimentation is ongoing.

The Final Word

From the days of Sennacherib the king of Assyria who lost 185,000 troops in one night, to Monty Python′s Black Knight, those who suppose they have a name worth preserving inevitably set out on a course of deprecation of the "others" and embellishment of their own, largely imagined, accomplishments. So it is with the story of Gulf. The Baffin Islanders continue to live in their quiet unassuming way unaffected by the parochial posturing of the rest of the world. The Scots meanwhile have revised history one more time and claim the passion we call Golf to have been of their own conception. Where, we may ask, is their proof? Where indeed is their motive for creation of such a unique pastime? What holes did they hit things toward? Where did the concept of a small round ball come from? Where indeed do the terms "round" or "golf" or "club" come from? Our friends here on Baffin Island know the true answer to all these questions and would be happy to share them with you when you visit.

Baffin Island Golf & Country Club,
Research Department.
Professor, Charles Webster B.S., PHD.

Foot Notes